Obama's Losing Noonan

Peggy Noonan has decided that Obama is losing the health care debate.

In her WSJ column this week, Noonan, for the second week in a row, seems a little soured on the smooth polished candidate she purred over right after the election. Now she's calling the health care debate "a disaster."

We tried to warn you, Peggy.

She says that Obama's town hall this week was "a bit of a disaster" and "It looked utterly stacked, with softball after softball thrown by awed and supportive citizens." I'd go her one further and suggested that it WAS stacked - it didn't just looked stacked. We know the child reading the question to Obama, the one who mentioned the "mean signs" is the daughter of a huge Obama supporter and worker.

Noonan suggests that Porkulus was the turning point in this administration:

"Looking back, a key domestic moment in this presidency occurred only eight days after his inauguration, when Mr. Obama won House passage of his stimulus bill. It was a bad bill—off point, porky and philosophically incoherent. He won 244-188, a rousing victory for a new president. But he won without a single Republican vote. That was the moment the new division took hold. The Democrats of the House pushed it through, and not one Republican, even those from swing districts, even those eager to work with the administration, could support it."

She could be right on that score...I suppose it's safe to say that some slumbering Republicans began to awaken over Porkulus. That's when the Tea Parties erupted.

She also suggests that Obama has done the impossible - he has united the Republican party. I hope that's true, but we still don't have a clear leader, I don't think. Things may be coming into soft focus, but I don't see The One for us out there just yet. Nobody that really excits me like I think Marco Rubio is going to do in time.

But if Obama is losing Noonan (and she purred at his victory and his charisma as much as any of them), he's clearly in a slide. She's been wishy-washy on him from the beginning, but maybe she's seeing what we all saw, now.

Now if we can just find that one Republican to lead us out of this hell hole...